It’s been an amazing few weeks, from Danny Boyle’s wonderful celebration of everything that makes us proud to be British in the Olympic Opening Ceremony to the Games themselves, with so many extraordinary athletes and outstanding performances.

It’s been an amazing few weeks, from Danny Boyle’s wonderful celebration of everything that makes us proud to be British in the Olympic Opening Ceremony to the Games themselves, with so many extraordinary athletes and outstanding performances.

Those of us fortunate enough to have had a ticket enjoyed brilliantly organised events in fabulous venues, both generously and cheerfully manned by volunteers and kept safe by the great men and women from our armed services.

I’ve never felt so humbled or so proud. Normally it’s our job at Ann Summers to make sure the nation wakes up with a smile on its face but Team GB seems to have done it for us this month.

Aside from the winners we should spare a thought for those who didn’t make the podium, like Kim Collins, the St Kitts and Nevis sprinter, who didn’t even make the start line after he was reportedly thrown off the team for sneaking out of the Olympic Village to spend the night in a hotel with his wife.

Any man that puts the bedroom Olympics before the real Olympics will always have a place in our hearts.

We should also pause for thought to consider what made these Games such a success. Without exception, every athlete put their success down to hard work, the team of people that support and work with them and the fact that it’s been their goal in life for anything from four years to more than 40.

These are of course the not-so-secret reasons behind the success many of us enjoy in the sport of retail. My only concern is that as the leader of a business and a parent too, when you share these secrets with your colleagues or your kids they often fall on deaf ears. Hard work has never had much appeal – perhaps we should rebrand it as ‘rewarding work’ instead.

So rather than talk in platitudes, it might be better if we all talked in specifics when it comes to improving our retail performance, and it’s here that we can learn much from elite sports. There are a number of sport management books and coaches that talk about the idea of doing everything 1% better: do everything a little better today than you did yesterday.

If you’re on the shopfloor how can you improve your appearance, your product knowledge, the way you talk to and serve your customers and the way you support your colleagues?

In head office, can you source that product 1% cheaper or get 1% more margin, can you get the stock delivered to store 1% quicker and 1% more accurately?

Doing 100 things better by 1% can have a dramatic impact on a businesses just as it has on every athlete in the Olympic Games. That 1% can mean being an extra bit quicker, higher or further and can be the difference between first and last.

You won’t be surprised to hear that as a business we haven’t lost sight of the fact that an extra couple of inches can make a world of difference.

  • Jacqueline Gold is chief executive of Ann Summers